Watch Out by Frank Seltzer
Ok Christmas is only next week and if you are looking for a last minute gift (I am sure they are not sold out) you could get a very special Fuente watch. Last week, watchmaker Hublot held a special luncheon in New York to kick off the Fuente watch. The event was attended by former NYC mayor Rudy Guliani (a noted cigar smoker) and journalist Paula Zahn who interviewed Carlito Fuente.
Technically the watch is called “King Power Arturo Fuente” and it is in honor of Fuente’s 100th anniversary which is this year, although the company is actually marking the occasion next year. Hublot took Fuente’s motto “we will never rush the hands of time: and decided a watch would be a good idea.”
According to the release:
“The watch will be available by year’s endat Hublot boutiques around the world, including Santo Domingo, Bal Harbour, Atlanta, Las Vegas and more. It comes in a genuine cigar humidor developed specially by Hublot, which is a blend of Macassar ebony and carbon. In addition, there are 25 special edition Opus X cigars included within the case.”
If you are thinking about picking up one of these limited editions, they run between $24,000 for the ceramic model and just over $44,000 for the one in gold.
Expensive smokes
Speaking of money, late last month an auction was held in London for rare cigars. You could tell they were rare because of the prices they fetched. They spent over $500,000 for the cigar, mostly Cubans. The highest bid went for 155 Cuban Partagas cigars in a custom humidor for about $14,000. The highest priced cigar was a partial box of Cuban made Dunhills from the 1980s which fetched about $1,000 per cigar. I really don’t think I could even light one of them for that price.
Old Dunhill
Continuing on a theme here (or another segue) Dunhill is coming out with a new old cigar. The new Dunhill Aged Reserva Especial 2003 is a limited edition made from the 2003 crop of Dominican fillers. Cigar Aficionado quotes the head of Dunhill cigars as saying,
“The Aged Vintage Limited Edition is very special to us, as it represents the starting point of many exciting things we are planning in 2013.”
The blend uses a Connecticut shade wrapper with a broadleaf binder. The cigars were made at General Cigar’s factory in the Dominican Republic and then stored in a Spanish cedar aging room for a year. It will be in one size, a Robusto Grande 5.5” x 54 and will cost $15…a lot less than the auctioned Dunhill.
Bloomberg Won’t Butt Out
Having solved all of his city’s problems with crime and the aftermath of Sandy, top smoke Nazi Bloomberg now is trying to recruit people to spy on their neighbors about, what else, smoking. According to the NY Post:
Community groups are being asked to convince tenants and property managers to turn their private buildings into butt-free abodes — the latest front in the Health Department and Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-smoking crusade, according to a recently released “request for proposal” document.
The groups would “work with property managers, tenants, and others on adoption of voluntary smoke-free policies by housing entities reaching one to two multi-unit buildings (containing a minimum of 30 units total),” the document urges.
For their efforts, a community group will collect a $10,000 bounty — paid for out of a Centers for Disease Control grant.
This comes after banning smoking pretty much everywhere in NYC and after the Mayor and his Health Commissioner said there were no plans to expand the smoking ban to apartment buildings. Yeah right.
“They are liars!” charged Audrey Silk, founder of the Brooklyn-based Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment. “They acclimate the public to a ban, and then they go after the final frontier of our freedom — our homes!”
The good thing is that New York has rent control which means very old leases are still in effect and they do not ban smoking. But keep it in mind, the other side will not rest until all smoking is banned everywhere including inside your own home!
Jordan still Smokin
Michael Jordan must be glad he doesn’t live in New York…first the taxes would crimp him, but the smoking ban would be a problem for his new house. He is building a 12.4 million dollar home in Jupiter, Florida. According to reports he is putting in a state of the art home theater which is designed to handle large amounts of cigar smoke. I wanna go watch a game THERE.
